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Avoid Ego To Build The Game

Anger only wins when you feed it. Competition is fostered through the belief of winning together. Floorball is a sport that is still growing, and needs active participation from every coach out there to consistently improve and broaden the game.

However, since getting involved in floorball I’ve noticed a few things crop up that confuse me.

One of the main things that I’ve seen is a sense from some that they’re focused on competing with other clubs or states trying to plant the proverbial flag as the best in the country.

This notion doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, especially when there isn’t a whole lot to base that off of. Making a statement that Idaho has the best floorball players in the country, and they’re the best state in the country for floorball is silly. Not because they are or aren’t, but that fighting over a statement like that doesn’t matter. If teams want to prove it on the court that would be the area to stake claim to those statement. There are a variety of tournaments for floorball, but the number of teams and overall quality is somewhat lacking in development. While there are established leagues throughout the country they are not the norm at this point.

If floorball is to gain acceptance and growth then the entire floorball community needs to get behind each other and support each other. Current leagues and clubs that have been established should be more focused on supporting new and developing leagues and clubs. Growth in the sport is beneficial to all and will help improve the number of players, quality of players, and the amount of competition at tournaments. I believe that at some point we’ll likely see more tournaments spring up across the country, and it is inevitable that there will be one or two premier tournaments around the country. However, the top tournaments in floorball will still be the World Floorball Championships, World Games, and hopefully the Olympics.

In order to develop the sport in the US we need to all band together use our resources to the benefit of all. Arguing about which club or organization is better does nothing to further the cause and development of the sport. If we all use our collective experiences we’ll be better off in the end. If you want to prove you’re the best go to as many tournaments that you can and prove it on the court. The biggest challenge with the US is how large it is. Not everyone can afford to travel across the country to compete in tournaments on a regular basis. It’s a challenge enough for every other sport to do that as it is.

As it is, there’s enough of a gap between people who’ve played to those who have never played that the emphasis should be on helping each other instead of tearing others down. Complaining or arguing about who’s better isn’t the answer. Dropping egos and working collectively to find solutions is what will help us move the needle forward in a positive direction. Those are the people we need to get involved and help improve the sport in positive ways. We can’t forget that we’re still new to the game and we have to have patience to learn not only how to play, but how to play the game properly. Be part of the solution and not the problem.